


Under the Sea

by serenityabrin



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: F/F, Mission Fic, Star Wars Rare Pairs 2018 Treat, Tight Spaces
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-01
Updated: 2018-12-01
Packaged: 2019-09-05 02:08:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,987
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16801576
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/serenityabrin/pseuds/serenityabrin
Summary: The information Leia needs for the Rebellion is in an Imperial base under the ocean.  Fortunately, Pash has plenty of experience working underwater.  What could possibly go wrong?





	Under the Sea

**Author's Note:**

  * For [saiditallbefore](https://archiveofourown.org/users/saiditallbefore/gifts).



When Pash showed Leia the submersible they were going to use, Leia couldn't hide her dismay. "It's so small."

"Well, of course. Any bigger and the water pressure would crush us," Pash said as she scooted into the tiny window at the head of the craft. "You're lucky this is a Model 10. I had a Model 3 back on Skorii-Lei that was way smaller. This thing is really roomy actually."

"Forgive me if I disagree," Leia said dryly as she followed Pash's lead in wiggling into the small craft. 

The submersible was flat with a very low ceiling, forcing Pash and Leia to stretch out horizontally. It was designed for one person to pilot on their belly. Pash's large muscular body took up most of the space, and Leia couldn't avoid pressing against her as she slid her way further into the craft.

Pash was on her side to let Leia pass, but she couldn't pilot that way. The controls were right under the window they'd just crawled through. Leia pressed herself against the side of the submersible. When Pash turned onto her belly, Leia was squished between her and the wall.

It took a bit of squirming on both their parts as Leia tried to find a comfortable position for this mission, and Pash locked the craft down and fired up the engine. Pash eventually tucked her elbow under her body to keep it from hitting Leia in the face. It meant she was steering from an odd angle but she made it work.

"You were saying something about roomy?" Leia said. She craned her neck to see what she could of the ocean outside the window but it was difficult at this angle.

"For someone so tiny, you sure do take up a lot of space," Pash grumbled.

Leia made a face at her but let the comment go. "You said you piloted these all the time for your old engineering job? I'm surprised you could stand it."

Pash glanced her way. "I'm not claustrophobic. You really couldn't be for underwater engineering. Besides, these things can be a lot of fun." She punctuated her statement with a hard turn, doing a roll in the water. "This one handles like a dream."

The sudden movement had Leia scrambling for something to hold onto, and the only thing available was Pash herself. Grabbing her arm and falling into her, Leia said, "Would you stop?"

"Sorry." Pash did not sound sorry at all.

Leia shot her another dirty look, although Pash's attention was on the instruments so she didn't see it. As Leia righted herself back against the submersible wall, she said, "How long until we get to the base?"

Pash pressed a few buttons and a holographic map appeared above the controls. "If we take a straight shot, less than an hour. But we're likely to be spotted if we do that. There's a canyon to the south and a kelp forest to the east. I think if we shadow the kelp forest, we have a better shot to go undetected but I can't go at full speed. The engine will gunk up if any of the weeds get into it."

"I'll defer to your expertise," Leia said, although her heart sank at the idea of being squished up against Pash for an hour there and an hour back. It was one thing to fantasize about being pressed up against Pash's large body when there was some hope of it going somewhere. Being in such a tiny space with her and being strictly professional was going to be torture.

The situation was helped a little when Pash put on the autopilot and turned back onto her side so they were facing each other. "I'll have to do some manual piloting when we get to the kelp forest but that won't be for awhile."

"Small mercies." Leia offered a small smile to soften her words.

Pash turned her head to look out the window, and Leia crooked her neck again to look outside. All she could see was a steadily darkening blue as they drifted further and further from the sunlight. Soon, the only illumination would be from the controls. It was too dangerous to use the craft's lights.

"I always loved being underwater," Pash said into the quiet. She finally looked at Leia and offered a sad smile. "My old job on Skorii-Lei was a dream-come-true. Not only being an engineer -- solving thorny problems and building things -- but doing it underwater too. It was the best."

Not for the first time, Leia felt guilt grip her as she knew the Rebellion had a hand in destroying Skorii-Lei's industry and eliminating Pash's job. "I'm sorry."

Pash shrugged and looked out the window again. "I certainly didn't think I'd get to do any underwater work for the Rebellion but here we are."

She offered an awkward smile when she turned back, and Leia knew she hadn't meant to strain the atmosphere as she had. Leia accepted the out for what it was.

"So, what shall we do to pass the time? I don't suppose you nicked one of Han's sabacc decks?"

As Leia hoped, Pash grinned more genuinely. "No, but I think I can get the holo-emitter to display a dejarik board for us. That should keep us busy for a bit."

What followed wasn't so much playing dejarik as trying to figure out how to jury-rig a game with an emitter and some creative use of colored lights for game-pieces. They were on their way to making up their own game when the kelp forest came onto the sensors and they had to stop.

"Sorry, Princess. Looks like space is going to be at a premium again," Pash said as she turned back onto her stomach so she could manually pilot the submersible.

Once again pressed into the wall, Leia replied, "I have suffered far worse indignities for the Rebellion, and I would do much more if it means we can get the plans from that base."

She meant what she said, but privately she had to admit this particular mission was throwing up some surprises she hadn't anticipated.

Pash could only grunt in response, needing her concentration to skirt the forest close enough to keep them off Empire sensors but not get sucked into the plants. Even Leia, who knew almost nothing about this underwater environment, could feel the way the vessel fought against the increasingly strong currents.

Leia again kept quiet so as not to disturb Pash's concentration. They were getting closer to the base, which meant closer to danger. They both needed their wits about them.

But it was still a half hour more to their destination. Leia's muscles grew sore as she kept herself tight against the wall and out of Pash's way. It would be easier if Leia could just curl up beside her, but the temptation to do more was just too great. As it was, Leia was still pressed up against the full length of Pash's body, and it was all Leia could focus on.

Pash just took up so much space. Leia's fingers itched to reach out and touch -- to test the strength of those large muscles and the softness of Pash's skin.

The half hour it took to get to the base was a trial on Leia's restraint, but fortunately Pash didn't seem to notice Leia's predicament. Her attention remained focused on her job.

"I'm detecting underwater patrols. They look automated. If we stay low, we should be indistinguishable from the ocean floor." Even as she spoke, Pash was steering the craft towards the seabed.

It was dark outside the window but Leia could see a topographical display showing the terrain as Pash expertly navigated their way closer to the base. Leia could see skill when she saw it, and she knew this was extremely difficult. They weren't using any light so Pash only had the display to go by. There was an occasional bump or scrape as they hit too close to the bottom, but overall Pash did an excellent job in such challenging conditions.

"Currents are getting trickier," Pash said by way of apology when they hit something a little harder than usual.

"How much farther do we have to go?"

"We're coming up on the base now but the access hatch is meters above us. I'm going to wait until those patrols slip around to the other side. I'll crawl along the side of the base like I was doing on the ground. Hopefully, our metal will read the same as the base's."

Leia hated 'hopefully's but she had come to depend on them in her time with the Rebellion. Their luck was with them as Pash fed a little bit of power to the engine and navigated them straight to the access hatch.

"Speaking of tiny," Pash said once she saw it. The outer hatch fit tightly against the ship's entrance, but the inner hatch was half the size. "I'm never going to fit through that."

"Fortunately, you don't have to." Leia shifted forward, happy to finally be of use on this mission. "Stay with the ship, and let me know if there's any trouble. I'll be back with the plans shortly."

***

Pash watched Leia wiggle her way into the hatch and disappear. As soon as she was gone, Pash let her head fall down onto the submersible's floor with a thunk.

When she had volunteered for this mission, her thoughts had focused on being underwater again. She had always felt so comfortable in water that the submersible she'd used had been like a second home. It hadn't occurred to her until the moment Leia slipped into the craft with her that she might have made a grave error in judgment.

The last hour had been torture. Not only to have Leia pressed so close that Pash's right side was now cold from the loss of her warmth, but to also have Leia's full attention all to herself -- it was everything Pash dreamed of. Leia was too busy with the Rebellion to have more than a few minutes here or there to chat, and there were always other people around.

This mission was dangerously close to everything Pash had ever wanted, which meant the likelihood of her bumbling it up spectacularly was almost a certainty.

Letting out an annoyed noise, Pash lifted her head and focused on the here and now. She'd managed not to make a fool of herself yet. She was halfway there.

Scanning the instrumentation, Pash kept an eye on the patrols and waited impatiently for Leia to return. She had been waiting only fifteen minutes when she realized several patrol droids were descending slowly in her direction.

Flipping the comm on, Pash hissed into it, "Leia. I think I've been spotted. Where are you?"

"I don't have the plans yet. Think of something," Leia hissed back, and shut the comm off from her end. Pash knew Leia was probably in just as much danger of discovery as she was but that didn't stop her from cursing.

Scrambling to think of something, Pash scanned the controls and quickly looked around the craft for inspiration. There was a logo of a sea creature on the corner of the control panel that gave her an idea.

Quickly prying open a metal plate, Pash kept one eye on the descending droids as she pulled out wires and set to work. Her heart was hammering in her chest as she rewired the controls to the emergency distress siren. It was meant to warn off other underwater vessels, divers, or animals in the case of a potential collision. The siren had a few different frequencies and sounds, but none of the ones Pash needed.

Her hands flew as she wrote a new command program into the computer. She prayed she wasn't making any mistakes since there was no time to check her work or slow down. Between her rewiring and her new program, she hoped she'd managed to give the craft a new set of sounds to make.

Holding her breath, she pushed the siren button. Her whole body was tense and ready to begin disengaging with the hatch in case this didn't work, although she was sure she'd be blasted to pieces before she could escape.

After a heart-pounding second, a series of high-pitch whistles, clicks, and low groans emanated from the submersible. It was what Pash had worked to achieve, but she still didn't relax. Her eyes were glued to the monitor showing the location of the droids to see what they would do.

For a few seconds, nothing changed. The droids continued a slow descent, and Pash thought it hadn't worked. She was reaching for the comm to inform Leia she would have to find another way out of the base when the droids suddenly paused. Pash watched anxiously as they held in one place for a few seconds and then drifted up again.

They didn't go away entirely, but Pash still breathed a sigh of relief.

***

It didn't take long for Leia to return to the submersible, but it felt like forever to Pash. "What took you so long?"

"Not all of us had the luxury of staying safe in the sub," Leia said tartly.

As Leia squirmed into the craft, Pash kept her eyes on the controls. "We're anything but safe, Princess."

Leia gave Pash a sharp look. "What is it?"

After closing the window, Pash scooted over as much as she could so Leia could see the instrumentation. Shoulder-pressing-shoulder, Pash pointed to the instrument showing the droids.

"They spotted me earlier. I've managed to mimic a sea creature, and I think they took the bait, but they're not as gullible as I'd hope. They clearly can't distinguish us from the base but they can see something's here. They've been holding at a distance -- I think to make sure we are a sea creature. The moment we come loose from the base, they're going to be able to see we're not."

"Can we outrun them?" Leia asked.

"I'm not sure how fast those things are. It's not a chance I'd bet my life on." Pash's tone was grim.

"We may have to. Unless you have another idea?"

Pash gave Leia an uncertain look. "I might. It really depends on the currents and a bucketful of luck. If we detach and just let ourselves sink to the sea bottom, we will switch the cover of the base for the cover of the seabed. But we'd have to remain close enough to the base that the droids can't get a read on us, and we can't use the engine to adjust our position. They'll catch that right away. If the currents take us too far from the base . . ."

Leia nodded in understanding. "I don't have any experience here so I'll trust your judgment."

That didn't assuage Pash's anxiety any. "Yeah, well, I don't have any experience with underwater patrol droids so I'm not sure I'm necessarily the best choice for this."

Leia reached out to put her hand over Pash's on the controls. "I trust you."

When Pash glanced up to meet Leia's eyes, there was a warmth there that Pash didn't know how to respond to. Clearing her throat, she nodded to the data cube Leia had liberated from the base. "You better secure that. If we are spotted, this ride could get bumpy."

While Leia put the cube away, Pash took a deep breath and began the procedure to detach from the base. She kept her eyes on the droids and her hands on the engine ignition as the craft began to slowly fall. For a few meters, it looked like the plan might work. The droids remained stationary, and their craft was gaining distance from them. 

It didn't last. The currents caught at the craft, gently nudging it further and further from the base until they were no longer indistinguishable from their surroundings. The seabed was still meters away, ample space for the droids.

Turning in unison, the droids all powered up and headed towards their submersible. Pash swore, immediately turning the engine on.

"We're almost to the bottom," Leia said.

"It won't matter now. They've locked onto us." Pash swung the craft around. "I'm going to head to the canyon. If we're more maneuverable than those droids, we might be able to lose them."

Blasts of plasma lit up the dark sea around them as the droids began to fire on them. Pash swung the craft from side to side, trying to avoid a direct hit. At least the Model 10 was quick in responding to her commands, and the canyon was not too far away.

It became apparent immediately that their current positions really weren't ideal, though. Pash was squished over to one side of the submersible, giving her just enough of a delay that she couldn't respond in time to the changing currents.

"This isn't working," she growled. At the same time, she grabbed Leia one handed and pulled the Princess under her. Acting instinctively, Pash straddled Leia. She brought her knees under her so she didn't put her full weight on the Princess, but her body effectively pinned Leia in place as she stretched forward towards the controls.

Pash didn't even think about this, finding the new position infinitely better for piloting the craft. It was just in time as the canyon loomed ahead.

Back on Skorii-Lei, Pash had spent a good amount of time charting undersea topography when looking for stable environments to build in, which had included more than one canyon. She'd also enjoyed cutting loose in her old Model 3. Pash enjoyed pushing the craft -- and herself -- to the limits.

That experience came back to her now. She felt how the currents shifted in the canyons, running faster or slower, creating dangerous eddies. Pash knew how to lean into the currents and use them to gain speed or turn on a credit. It wasn't something the instruments could help with. By the time the pressure differential showed, it was too late to act.

That worked against the droids now. As Pash effortlessly turned into the currents, skirting along a canyon wall, the closest droid following her smashed into the rocks. Pash poured on more speed, now feeling she had a weapon against their pursuers.

It made for a turbulent ride as Pash pressed into one current and pulled out of another. With her knees under her, Pash was pretty well wedged by the ceiling and couldn't move much. Leia was partially immobilized with her hips between Pash's thighs, but her torso had freer movement. As their mad dash began to get really wild, Leia wrapped her arms around Pash's chest and held on tight.

Pash was so focused on the chase that she barely noticed. Turning sharply into a side channel of the canyon, Pash said, "Two more overshot the turn. One more to go."

She'd kept up a bit of a running commentary of what was going on, more for herself than anything. The map showed that they were getting close to the end of the canyon and would be out in open ocean again. These droids were fast. If Pash couldn't lose their last pursuer, they might not get away.

A proximity alarm beeped, and Pash's eyes widened in horror when a tunnel suddenly materialized in the gloom right in front of them. It was narrow and irregular, and too close to miss. Pash was half in panic as she piloted through it, making split-second adjustments but having no time to plan anything beyond the immediate obstruction in front of them.

The tunnel narrowed part way through, and their little craft barely scraped by. It was not enough room for the pursuing droid, which smashed to bits behind them. Pash had no time to celebrate that as their close call left her struggling to keep control of the craft.

Fighting the current all the way, Pash didn't so much navigate the tunnel as ride through it. She was so focused on just surviving each next second that the arrival of the tunnel exit came as a complete surprise. They had so much speed by then that they were already rocketing out of the tunnel -- and the canyon itself -- before she realized what was going on.

Now in the safety of the open ocean with no more droids following them, Pash let out a whoop of relief and delight. She'd been sure they were a second away from joining the smashed droids and now they were safe. The sudden reversal made her giddy as all the tension in her released in a rush.

In that mindset, she looked down to share the triumph with Leia, and it finally hit her what position they were in. She had Leia between her thighs. Leia, who was currently holding Pash tight to keep from being banged about by their wild ride.

"Oh!"

Pash's first reaction to this situation was to undo it. She tried to get off to give Leia room, but there was nowhere for Pash to go in the tiny craft. Her instinctive move to disentangle them ended up in Pash hitting her head against the ceiling.

Leia reacted instinctively too, reaching up to grab Pash's head and pull it down before she could hurt herself again. Suddenly, Leia and Pash were almost nose-to-nose, and they both froze. Pash was hyper-aware of her own body and Leia's underneath it. She had no idea what Leia was thinking, unable to read her expression.

For a moment, neither did anything. Then Leia scowled and said, "To hell with it."

That was all the warning Pash had before Leia surged up and caught Pash in a fiery kiss. It was the second wild ride Pash had been on today, and she could only hold on as Leia proceeded to map every inch of her mouth. When they broke apart with a gasp, it was only to find new places to kiss.

Leia's hands were tugging Pash's shirt out of her pants when the proximity alert beeped. Freezing in place again, they stared at each other for a split second before Pash leaned up to see what it was.

Fortunately, it wasn't a droid. "Just some debris," Pash said.

She looked down at Leia, who offered a chagrined look. Her cheeks were flushed, her hair was mussed, and her lips were swollen, and Pash really wanted to lean down and kiss her breathless again.

"I suppose this isn't quite the best time for this," Leia said, letting her fingers caress the skin she'd exposed just above Pash's belt.

Pash shivered. "Not all the droids were destroyed. They just got lost in the canyon. They could pop up again."

Leia sighed and let her hands fall back to the floor. "Best to stay sharp then."

"Yeah."

Pash wasn't sure what to do as she awkwardly hovered over Leia. Seeing it, Leia's expression turned mischievous. Without explaining herself, she gently pushed Pash to one side. Pash obediently moved to let Leia retreat to the side of the submarine again.

Except that wasn't what Leia did. Once she was out from under Pash, she pulled Pash back into position to pilot the ship. Leia then stretched out alongside her.

"There. Much better, don't you think?" Leia said, now half lying on Pash.

Turning her head, Pash found Leia close enough to kiss, so she did that. It was a quick peck on the lips, but it made Leia smile.

"Comfortable, Princess?" Pash said, a teasing note in her voice.

"Very."

Amused, Pash turned back to the controls and focused on the job at hand. Surrounded by the ocean and with Leia pressed up against her, Pash couldn't be happier.

Joining the Rebellion was turning out to be an excellent idea.


End file.
